


sunspots and lemondrops

by fraud



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Best Friends, Childhood Memories, Comfort, F/M, Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-15
Updated: 2013-09-15
Packaged: 2017-12-26 16:34:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/968168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fraud/pseuds/fraud
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Severus spends a lot of time with Lily growing up. Set when they're both 14.</p>
            </blockquote>





	sunspots and lemondrops

Surely if Severus had expected to get any reading done, he would have stayed at home. He would not have accepted Lily’s invitation to stay over and he certainly would not have let her assure him that a ‘quick walk’ wouldn’t turn into a wild romp through the woods.

They tumbled back toward the Evans home, sweaty and with grass clinging to them, Severus’ pants rolled up to his knees in an embarrassing display of his distressingly scrawny legs and Lily’s smooth auburn hair in wild disarray around her fair face.

The days he spent with Lily were the whole reason he looked forward to those dreadful expanses of time where he couldn’t pretend he was a ward of Hogwarts. Mrs. Evans was always polite and made lemonade that could pucker even Severus’ lips. Mr. Evans was an endless vat of information, constantly bubbling up with information or popping in to correct a quote he’d said the day prior. They were wonderful people who called him Severus and always had a bowl of round lemon candies on the sitting room table when he came over- despite the fact that none of them appreciated the sour little droplets.

Lily’s father worked full time and was rarely home on the weekdays, her mother ran errands for a living, which took her away from the house a surprising amount of time. One could almost forget that boring waste of space Lily called a sister was in the same house with how often she fled into town to be with some Muggle boy.

Severus’ fondest memories were within these walls. In all of his fourteen years he’d learned hexes that weren’t spoken of in polite Wizarding society, endured several curses under the thinly veiled excuse of preparedness, and discussed more Dark Magic than most Hogwarts students retained in all of their years at Hogwarts- but _never_ had he felt as much or as fiercely as he did with Lily.

She swung open the screen door on their back porch and tromped in, toeing off her grass-stained yellow trainers with practiced ease and not waiting to see if Severus was behind her. Where else would he be?

“I’ll be right back, I’m going to change my shirt.” She gave him a sort of wave and disappeared down the hall with a flounce of red hair and legs.

“A ‘quick walk’ shouldn’t result in a change of clothes you equivocator!” Severus called after her, catching the patio door before it slammed shut- something that made Mrs. Evans cringe.

He stooped to unlace his shoes, pulling them off as well as his socks which had bits of grass stuck to them from when they’d decided to wade barefoot through the stream that connected this town to the next. That was the same stream that ran by Prince Manor. When Severus was forced to endure time with his Grandparents he would imagine writing letters to Lily, folding them into little boats, and floating them down the stream to where she’d be waiting to receive them; sometimes he imagined he could float down the river, right to the Evans home where he could hazard the short walk up to their back porch and just let himself in, as if he belonged.

Severus placed his shoes neatly by the back door and arranged Lily’s while he was at it.

Lily padded back out in a pair of knee high socks that she had not been wearing previously, the same audaciously short shorts, and a billowy shirt of some thin material that bunched at her wrists and just under her bosom. Severus caught himself thinking he would appreciate the garment much more if it weren’t so gaudily busy- but Lily insisted it was “in fashion.”

“Everything appropriates a clothing change when your a girl Sev,” She waved his Potions Manual at him- sandwiched between two glossy journals that Severus recognized as Lily’s not-so-secret fashion passion magazines. “Now are you coming or is there something in the doorway I need to know about?”

“Forgive the idleness my sovereign, please, lead us to the next scintillating adventure.” His hand swept across the room, inviting her to lead the way.

“Sovereign? Far out! This means I’ll get a bigger closet; cool-city!” She walked into the sitting room, tossing the words over her shoulder.

“Cool-city?" Severus groaned, sitting down on the tasteful brown couch that sat opposite the bookshelves. "Oh Lily, you’ve only been home for two weeks, _how_ has your vernacular deteriorated to Muggle slang already?” 

“You think I’m bad? ’Tunie’s like, speaking a whole different language.” Lily flopped down next to him, distributing the appropriate materials. “You wont believe what she thought I was talking about when I told Mum and Dad we were going to be learning about Boggarts next year!”

Severus made a questioning noise; he could only imagine, but didn’t say anything as he preferred to imagine that bleating goat of a sister were some strange deviant version of a Boggart herself. Maybe an overgrown Doxie…

“Apparently Muggles are using the word Boggart to mean someone who smokes Marijuana, can you imagine?” Lily was laughing, her legs crossed and her magazines draped over her bare thighs.

“Sounds like an appropriate Muggle interpretation of Magical beings, I mean, your sister believed it.” He replied offhandedly, flipping to the page he’d left off on last night.

She slapped him on the arm and he looked up fast enough to see the amused glint in her eyes. He gave her an unapologetic grin and shrugged, finding his page and pushing his toes into the plush shag throw rug.

There was no designating the passage of time save the comments Lily would occasionally make, the lazy scribbles Severus would make in his book, and the mutual flipping of pages into the silence of the house.

Lily had a bad habit of slouching when she read and eventually she was on the floor, sprawled out on her stomach and lying parallel with the couch, Severus’ toes nearly touching her. Her left foot swung lazily around in the air, occasionally twisting to crack her ankle or point her toes to the popcorned ceiling. Severus ignored the way her shirt rode up and exposed the soft dip of her back, rising up to disappear into her shorts. He ignored the way said shorts were loose enough to provide him a peek of whatever she was wearing underneath if he just moved his head a little further…

Lily leaned over to scratch her left thigh which pressed her warm right side up against his icy toes. She let out a yelp and rolled away from him, shaking her hair out of her face to glare playfully at him.

“Sev, you have the feet of the dead! Augh, like little icicles; why didn’t you tell me you were cold?”

He raised his eyebrow.

“Because I’m not?” Severus shrugged, rubbing his feet together idly. “I just have cold feet.”

The look she gave him clearly said she didn’t believe him but she rolled back to her original position. Severus made sure to move his feet.

“Where do you think you’re going with those?” Lily asked, all authority and defiance.

“How easily you forget,” Severus wiggled his toes at her. “My dead feet, remember?”

“Uh yeah,” Lily caught his foot with her warm hand; her fingernails were painted a bright yellow. “I’m hot, put your icicle toes on me.”

Severus frowned, wondering what she could possibly mean but did not pull his foot away from her.

“Oh c’mon, don’t be so dense, just put them on my back and you’ll warm your feet up and I’ll cool off a bit.” She flopped down and hiked the back of her shirt up- as if it needed help.

“We were wading through the stream Lils,” Severus reminded her, rolling his eyes as if she were telling him Potions wasn’t a subject in Hogwarts. “I’m not going to put my feet on your back.”

She speared him with a look.

“After the fuss you put up about letting our feet dry before we put our shoes back on you’d better not be telling me you think your feet are dirty.” She looked at his feet and Severus was aware of how big they suddenly seemed, attached to bony ankles that only lead to lank hairy calves.

Annoyed, he redirected his attention the book in his lap, ignoring the look Lily was giving him.

That proved easier said than done.

Lily gave the customary couple of whining ‘Sev? Seeeeeevvvvv’s’ before falling silent in a huff. It took a moment for her to think of her next form of distraction. The warm press of her side against his toes got his attention.

“Just stretching,” She grinned up at him from the floor, wiggling at him in a way that was supposed to attract his attention to her bare back but really drew his attention to the soft swell of her bottom.

Severus raised an eyebrow at her and tucked his toes under the shag rug in retaliation, pointedly bending his head to his Potions Manual.

Nothing that simple could hope to deter Lily Evans. Before long she was rolling over, trapping his feet under the warm press of her back and holding the magazine above her head, conveniently in the line of Severus’ sight of her undoubtedly impish grin.

“See, not so bad, right?” The magazine asked with Lily’s voice.

“As usual I’ve no choice in the matter.” Severus mumbled, distracted by the little convex curve of Lily’s stomach afforded to his peripheral- _not_ that he was looking.

Peeking out from the magazine, Lily frowned at him.

“You’ve always got a choice in the matter stupid,” She rolled off of him, close enough to touch if he stretched, and resumed reading that glossy trash.

Severus went back to reading, spinning the pen Lily insisted he write with around his long fingers. Two thirds of the way down the page and unable to recall a word of it he bit his bottom lip. He hadn’t meant to annoy Lily, he had a right to deny her ridiculous requests, right? The thought of putting his feet on her back brought that warm tickle between his shoulder blades reminiscent of embarrassment; something so indelicate pressed to the fine curve of her back? No. Lily could pout all she wanted.

It took another third of a page and Lily’s innocuous ever so slight shifting toward him before he gave up. Lily could guilt him like no one else and he’d endure the embarrassment if it would make her happy. He tentatively pressed his toes to her side, ready to pull back if she so much as made a peep to the contrary. Her side twitched reflexively and her hair happened to slip off her shoulder at that precise moment to hide her face but everything else stayed as it had been.

Venturing into calm waters, Severus placed the ball of his foot against the small of her back, resting the arch against her when nothing happened. Lily’s back was warm and strong beneath his foot, not the fragile, gossamer thing he’d imagined. If he didn’t pay attention to it he could ignore how ridiculous it looked to have her on the floor, swinging her bent leg happily in the air as he rested his foot on her.

Sure enough, his foot leeched the warmth off of her, reaching a pleasant equilibrium. The back of Lily’s head was doing its best to seem smug- however one accomplished that.

Well if _that’s_ how they were going to play the game…

Severus pressed his other foot to the dip in her back, making her jump at the cold appendage; he smirked in triumph.

A glossy page was turned and Lily wiggled, jostling his feet. She could ignore with the best of them.

They lapsed into a companionable silence, a truce of sorts. Severus couldn’t argue that Lily had warmth enough to share, and his feet fit against her back just right. It wasn’t nearly as strange as he’d thought it would be. His left leg twitched, moving his foot a little down her back. Severus compulsively turned a page just as Lily did the same.

Her body shook with silent chuckles and Severus admitted it was humorous, in a way. He pressed his toes into her to convey that the absurdity was mutual.

“If you spend one more moment gloating I’ll be forced to deflate your increasingly large ego.” He rubbed his foot over her back in warning.

“Gloating? Not me,” Lily tittered, brushing her hair back and gracing him with a huge smile. “I’m just thinking we should get you a pair of bellbottoms. I think you’d look great in them.”

“What does one do with the bottoms of bells?” Severus asked, genuinely confused how one separated a bell, let alone wore it.

“The pants,” Lily laughed, holding her magazine over her head so he could see a picture of a man with too much hair in too many different directions wearing a vest of some flashy material, a shirt with far too many colors to have stripes on it as well and long, flared white pants. “They’re totally groovy.”

“You mean to make me look a fool,” Severus scoffed, using his foot to push the distasteful image out of her hands and away from him. “Thank you Lily, but no.”

“Aww, come on, you like my shorts don’t you?” Her question was accompanied by a wiggle of her hips. “They’re fashionable!”

“They’re distractingly short,” He snipped, flushing as soon as the words left his mouth.

He... hadn’t meant to say that.

“Thanks for noticing Sevvy,” Lily laughed and wiggled her hips again, pushing her bottom up to tease him.

“Don’t flatter yourself just yet,” Severus backpedaled, tucking his hair behind his ear nervously with intensely renewed interest in his Potions text.

“Yes well maybe we’ll get you some bellbottoms and I’ll compliment you on your bottom as well.” Lily mused, stretching to reclaim the magazine Severus had knocked out of her hand.

It wasn’t until he felt the fabric of her shorts brush over his toes that Severus realized he might have wanted to move his feet if she were stretching anywhere. Lily settled down with her magazine, content to read more of whatever rubbish they were trying to heckle her with and didn’t seem to notice that her movement had moved his feet. He didn’t want to dwell on it but he was very aware of the soft upward swell of her bottom under his left foot and that his smallest toe was in uncharted territory.

His Potions text might as well have been written in Greek for all the effort he was putting into actually reading it.

There was nothing overtly sexual about it. His foot had been resting on her back and now it was resting on her lower back- but _oh_ the difference it made to him. What was under the waistband of her shorts was no longer a mystery to him, or his foot at the very least. She was warm here as well and Severus felt his thoughts fluttering around in his head like so many dust particles caught in sunlight.

Lily was his best friend, undoubtedly. She was his only confidant and often the only person he ever cared to impress. They had grown up together, he’d seen her favorite color go through every shade of the rainbow, consoled her in his awkward way through bad haircuts and failed potions. Every happy memory he possessed was completely due to the Witch at his feet- _under_ his feet to be precise.

Severus rubbed her back with the foot not resting on the rise of her bottom, testing to see if she would realize where the other was and demand he move it. A soft, noncommittal noise was all he got in return.

Sitting in there, in this room so familiar he could navigate it with his eyes closed, feet warmed by Lily’s back, Severus felt his chest swell uncomfortably. Licking his lips he leaned his head back, the couch making a soft sound as he did so.

He could feel green eyes on him. Unmistakable.

“You okay Sev?” Lily asked quietly, as if speaking too loudly would shatter the moment.

He was okay. He would be okay so long as Lily stayed there with him.

“Yeah,” Severus whispered, pressing his toes against her back to convey what had filled him up; taken hold inside of him, poignant and sharp in this utterly unmentionable, ill-equipped moment.

He felt more than saw Lily nod and go back to her magazine.

**Author's Note:**

> this was written waaaay back in 2010, when i was really into hprp & marauders era stuff that in no way included the marauders. oh sev. oh lily. we could have had it all.mp3


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